


Longing

by Rosae, Sif (Rosae)



Series: Frostironstrange Works [15]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Avenger Loki (Marvel), Badly, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Good Loki (Marvel), Hurt/Comfort, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, M/M, Multi, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Pack Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 00:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16587347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosae/pseuds/Rosae, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosae/pseuds/Sif
Summary: In which Aesir do not have pack dynamics, but Jotunn sure do, and Odin never bothered himself with taking care of the pack needs. How much damage could it really do to Loki in the end?





	Longing

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Becoming Omega](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6436273) by [Rjslpets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rjslpets/pseuds/Rjslpets). 



> This is a prompt from my Frostironstrange blog. I decided to try to write something inspired by my favorite take on ABO dynamics. 
> 
> Hit me up, either on my [Blog](www.frostironstrange.tumblr.com) or [ my discord server](https://discord.gg/nsY56GK)!

  
  


Loki was going to be here. Loki was going to be in their pack space in less than twenty minutes. Tony wasn’t really sure how this was going to work, but it was going to have to. There was nowhere else to keep him safely and they  _ needed  _ Loki for this. Doctor Strange, the newest member of the avengers pack and Tony’s second favorite packmate right now. Given that he was dating Tony, he would have been Tony’s favorite packmate (even though the Omega wasn’t meant to have favorites) but given that he was a good forty percent responsible for the current state of demons overrunning New York, he had been downgraded to second favorite after Bruce. 

 

The demons were why Loki was needed, the Avengers were barely able to hold off the waves as is, and Stephen couldn’t close the portals. They were designed for him to be unable to close them, they were not however, designed to prevent Loki from closing them. Something about Asgardian magic being different somehow. Tony didn’t really get it, he was pacing instead. Tentatively, he poked at his Omega-brain, trying to see how it felt about Loki coming here. Strangely, Omega-brain was silent on the matter. Usually it would have had very, very strong murdery feelings about a threat, someone who had hurt someone Tony cared about in pack space. It’d tried to convince him to off Fury more then once, so the fact he was getting radio silence back on Loki of all people being in his pack space was off-putting. Maybe it was that Loki was Asgardian and thus at least somewhat outside of pack dynamics? Or maybe, Tony thought with a mental eye-roll, Omega-brain was hiding it’s murder plan from him. Also a distinct possibility. 

 

The Loki situation overall was complicated to say the least. Thor had shown back up, seeming ever so pleased and announced that his brother hadn’t gone mad after all. That it turned out that Loki had not been acting under his own mind at least to an extent (Thor had then tried to explain what that meant but it was like Steve trying to explain astrophysics). Some people were kinda upset about that, but it made a lot of sense. The guy’s actions just hadn’t felt right. Still, Thor had also said that Loki wouldn’t be coming by Midgard for a long time and that he was currently being supervised to prevent a regression. So it had all resolved itself, until now, when Loki was coming  _ into his damn tower.  _

 

As he’d been thinking, Tony had been pacing up and down the room. He turned back to the couch where Bruce was sitting and watching him. The demon wave was currently on break, the pattern had been every twelve hours and they had six left. Bruce gave him a small smile and suddenly Omega-brain had a lot of very wonderful ideas for those six hours that involved cuddling, food and pack. 

 

“Come on Tony, rest for a bit at least before we have to deal with… well I’d say hell but that’s a bit on the nose?” Bruce’s smile had morphed into a grin, and Tony couldn’t help but agree. He hardly even noticed himself moving before he was curled up in Bruce’s arms. For a few minutes, Tony’s brain flickered off and he let Bruce’s scent soothe him. When he opened his eyes and restarted his brain again, there were more people in the room. Steve and Bucky had arrived, with Steve hovering near the doorway and Bucky tucked back into the shadows. Stephen was to Tony’s left on the couch, looking exhausted and it was all he could to stop from demanding his second-favorite Beta sleep. Clint and Natasha were tucked back near Bucky and that made his Omega-brain a bit upset since Clint was clearly upset but there wasn’t much to be done about it now. 

 

“How long do we have?” Tony asked, more to the room in general then anyone in particular. Stephen answered.

 

“Any minute now, I can feel the bifrost activating.” Stephen’s gaze was fixed on the roof. Tony quickly sat up and made himself presentable, smoothing out his suit and giving Stephen a quick kiss before moving to the doorway to stand by Steve. His Alpha needed him after all, and like hell he wasn’t going to be on the front line for this. Bruce and Stephen both followed closely after him, taking their places flanking him and Steve. Sam and Rhodey were both on monitoring duty, even though the pattern was well established. 

 

A roar of power shook the building, and Tony tensed. Silence followed, and then the quiet war of the elevator. The doors opened with a hiss, and there stood Loki and Thor. Loki was unbound, it didn’t particularly suprise Tony but it unnerved the rational part of his brain. Carefully, he poked at his Omega-brain to see how it felt about this development only to get a strong response.

 

_ Mine.  _

 

Wait. What. Rewind. Omega-brain, could you run that by again? 

 

_ Pack. _

 

Tony had to fight the urge to startle, for a moment he tried to figure out if his instincts were reacting to Thor? But nope, Omega-brain was very convinced that Loki was pack and very firm on the idea. Alright. Tony could work with this. A shifted side glance to Steve and one sniff at the air confirmed that his Alpha was having a very similar reaction and subsequent confusion. Steve didn’t seem to be handling it as well as Tony was though, so time for him to step up. Both Asgardians seemed a little put off by the silence so Tony broke it as he stepped forward to hug Thor. 

 

“It’s been way too long! You gotta stop running off to goat-land, point break!” Tony beamed up at Thor who returned his grin with that megawatt smile and it was enough for Tony to forget about the weirdness in his head for a moment. He leaned in to scent mark Thor’s neck with a quick kiss in hopes to sate his Omega-bain. Stepping back and turning to Loki, he quickly realized that it’d done nothing to help him.

 

_ MARK HIM _

 

It took a lot for Tony to step away from Loki, with some part of his body trying to pull him forward. Steve actually almost took a step forward and if Natasha hadn’t moved to snag his wrist he might’ve. Thor seemed quite confused, he couldn’t get most of the pack dynamics but he could tell something was up. Quickly, Tony shook himself and refocused on Loki who seemed... confused or shaken. Time to play clean up. 

 

“Sorry for the cold welcome, I think the whole alien thing is messing with our pack a bit. Anyways, Stephen can take you over to the portals, you should have two hours before the next cycle. Thank you for coming to help us.” 

 

Loki nodded, glancing away for a moment before appearing to regain himself enough to look to Stephen with a raised eyebrow. Stephen didn’t hesitate to step forward, bushing Tony’s hand as he stepped past him to offer Loki a hand. Loki gave Steve and Tony each a small nod which set everyone’s hairs on end because it was clearly an instinctive move, before taking Stephen’s hand. Stephen seemed to shake off the shock fairly quickly and teleported the two of them out of the room. 

 

Tony almost stopped him. He had to clench his eyes shut and maintain control of his breathing to stop from shouting at Stephen not to take Loki out of his sight. Thor seemed a little lost, but Natasha had caught on and quickly exchanged a look with Steve. He gave her a nod and she quickly moved to snag Thor by the arm.

 

“Thor, great to see you again. Fury wanted you to have a look at some alien tech we recently recovered and see if it looks familiar.” 

 

There was barely time for Thor to protest before he was swept out of the room leaving the rest of the pack able to speak freely. Tony swiveled to face Steve, eyes wide. He wasn’t the only one either, even Bruce seemed a little shaken up (though thankfully not green). Clint was staring off into space. Tony was pretty shaken up himself and hoped his alpha had answers. The confusion on Steve’s face implied otherwise. Steve glanced to where Loki had left, and then back to Tony.

 

“So I assume I’m not the only one whose instincts have gone off the deep end?” 

 

Tony shook his head, unsure of if he wanted to laugh or cry, “Nope, looks like something’s set off the lot of us.” 

 

Bruce set a gentle hand on Clint, which seemed to shake him out of the worst of it. Clint gave him a small smile then looked to his pack leaders, “Do you think he did it on purpose?” 

 

Tony shook his head, “I don’t think so, he looked shook up too. Besides, Asgardians don’t have a concept of pack so I doubt they’d have any sort of magic designed to mess with it, and it wouldn’t be his first thought.” 

 

Bruce spoke up next, “Could it be that he’s Thor’s brother? Usually a familial bond won’t override negative experiences, but maybe since Thor still cares about Loki it still counts?” 

 

Steve was the one to shake his head this time, “Possible but highly unlikely. At least not to illicit that strong of a response, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that strong of a pull towards non-pack. Expect maybe…” 

 

One eyebrow up, Tony waited for Steve to continue. He had to clear his throat before he did, since the other seemed lost in thought. 

 

“Oh, sorry. It’s from back in my war days. Wasn’t my pack, but another close pack found this kid up in the mountains when doing recon. He was about eighteen and he’d been alone with no pack since he was five or six in this old bunker. Mom brought him there and the left to get help but died before she could. No pack, no pack interactions, no one at all but voices on the radio. They went nuts over him, pulled him straight into their pack and wouldn’t let anyone near him as if he was an omega. He ended up enlisting to stay with them, took months for them to be okay with letting him out of their sight. Scientists got all hyped up about it, somethin’ about isolation making them work harder to try and find pack. Never really got anywhere with it though since none of them were able to get readings from him before it evened out.” 

 

Bruce’s interest was definitely piqued. “I’ve heard of that, or at least something similar. Isolation from pack and other people increases pheromone levels, you see it in small amounts in criminals put in solitary. I can imagine that level of isolation would cause a pretty powerful build up. But that doesn’t fit with Loki’s situation because Asgardians aren’t pack bonded normally. He’s also not been isolated to our knowledge, and if he had it would’ve triggered us back when he was trying to take over.”

 

“It did though. Just not you guys.” Clint spoke back up, seemingly shaken by something. All eyes in the room turned to him. “Back when he first came around and took people under his control, even before the mind control I was hit with a powerful desire to pack. The mind control pulled me away from it, but we all fell into pack dynamics when he was around. He got upset with us for it too, seemed like something was bothering him a whole lot. Though, that may have been the other person controlling him now that I think about it.  You lot wouldn’t have been hit by it though since you were always in combat situations with him, and high stress situations shuts down the pheromone receptors for forming pack bonds. It’s why they can’t use it in torture situations.” 

 

“Huh.” Tony considered this for a long moment. “That doesn’t explain why he’d have any pheromones in the first place, Asgardians have evolved past them. Thor said so himself, and Thor’s been alone for just as long with no such reaction.” 

 

That gave everyone pause as they mulled over the situation, only they didn’t get long to think before Thor came bursting back into the room, heartily chattering at Natasha about some childhood story as she trailed behind him. She mouthed a quick ‘Sorry’ before moving to go sit next to Clint. He leaned right into a hug from her, nuzzling under her chin. 

 

No better place than the horse’s mouth. Or something like that. Tony greeted Thor with a hug standing on his tiptoes to be able to put his arms over Thor’s shoulders.

 

“Hey buddy, this is a bit of a weird question, but Stephen’s noticed some different stuff going on with your brother’s magic. Nothing bad, just different from what he expected from an Asgardian. Any chance you know what’s up?” 

 

Thor’s mood immediately shifted, a frown overtaking him and his shoulders slumping even as he hugged Tony back. “Aye, I do. It is nothing to be concerned about.” Which got a metaphorical raised eyebrow from just about everyone in the room. Thor was never cagey about stuff, in fact, he usually was overexplaining. So Tony pressed just a little, wiggling closer to Thor as he did so.

 

“Did he study magic somewhere else? I’ve been trying to understand how it works myself since Stephen says there are different types of magic and stuff.” 

 

There was a pause as Thor clearly considered his words carefully but a sniff of Tony’s scent was enough to win him over (and man did that make Omega Brain preen). “I have mentioned before that my brother was adopted, correct?” 

 

Tony nodded eagerly, they had had long talks on the subject but now that Tony was thinking about it Thor had never mentioned where Loki was adopted from. He’d just assumed Thor didn’t know and so he didn’t ask. Thor sighed again, relaxing into Tony’s hold. “Though he takes on an Aesir form through a glamor, my brother is not of Asgard, he was born in Jotunheim. Though it does not mean I love him any less.” The last part was added quickly, as if they would accuse him otherwise.

 

Huh. So Loki wasn’t an Asgardian. Wait, “Aren’t Jotunn’s frost giants? Loki’s not very tall.” Well compared to Tony he was tall but everyone was tall compared to Tony.

 

Thor nodded, “Loki was- is a runt” and he flinched at the word even as he used it “Mother has told me she believes his small size is why he was abandoned.” Some pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place for Tony, and that just left him with one question, one that he couldn’t ask because Omega Brain was snarling at the idea that one of it’s packmates was abandoned while Tony tried his best to convince it that Loki wasn’t even a packmate and that it was also thousands of years ago. Luckily Steve was a good Alpha and knew what needed to be asked. Good Steve, although also bad Steve for not also cuddling Tony right now while he was thinking such distressing thoughts.

 

“Out of curiosity, you’ve said Aesir don’t have pack dynamics. Do Frost Giants by any chance or is just a Midgardian thing?”

 

With another nod, Thor confirmed the awful, no good, very bad fear that was now welling up in the Avengers. “Yes, now that you mention it they do. The Jotunn are not as evolved as Aesir and so they still rely on-” and Thor cut himself looking quite sheepish now. “My apologies, I am trying to work on having more care with my words.”  

 

It was impossible to see by an untrained eye, but the entire room froze. All of them loved Thor, but even with him trying his very best he wasn’t fully capable of participating in pack activities like the rest of them could. And that was with Thor actively trying, learning and making mistakes. He’d only become readable to Tony within the last few months, and that was with a lot of practice. Without him actively trying, there was little to no hope for him as a pack mate, and he would have been the closest thing that Loki would’ve had to one. 

 

The prospect was horrifying to say the least. Loki would’ve been alone his entire life. No pack. No potential pack. Nobody to really bond with, nobody who could understand him, balance him, help him. It wasn’t just starting to make sense that Loki had gone mad (or maybe had?), Tony was mostly starting to question how Loki was capable of functioning at all. 

 

Okay. Maybe Omega-brain was onto something here. 

 

Before anyone could start to explain to Thor that that was, first and foremost, fucked up and secondly probably had a lot to do with Loki’s murder streak (in the explanation on Loki’s actions, Thor had mentioned someone named Thanos. Tony hadn’t really been paying attention but Thanos was definitely not an Asgardian. Maybe Thanos had been pack? People would do stupid things for pack and Okay Omega-Brain time to settle the fuck down the dude wasn’t even here). There was a loud beep from Tony’s phone which pulled all his attention. That was Stephen’s beep! 

 

JARVIS was already pulling up the message for him. 

 

_ Portals are all down, he was surprisingly quick at pulling them apart. Having difficulty being near him and not portaling him to the pack room, his personality is helping with that though.  _

 

Tony took in the message and it supported the pheromone theory. Stephen was usually the least affected of any of them, even Thor sometimes when it came to pack instincts. Something about magic did that to him. Long stretches of “time” being on his own without aging, messing with his own biology, a bunch of things neither Tony nor Steve approved of but nor could they stop. Also, weirdly enough being a doctor gave him a lot of experience in not getting pulled into a pack in distress. Okay. Wait. No. If the portals were fixed then Thor would take Loki back to Asgard and then they’d never see him again and he’d be trapped without any pack forever all alone and-

 

Steve’s hand quickly landed on Tony’s shoulder and it was enough to calm him back to a more rational self. One step at a time, first things first, Loki couldn’t go back to Asgard yet. Stephen could help with that.

 

_ will explain later. need loki to stay for at least 1 week. convince him and ill talk to thor.  _

 

He got a text back in a minute or so.

 

_ On it. Story is going to be that we haven’t caught the portal maker yet and we want to make sure these won’t be reset. I don’t think he’ll mind being out of Asgard for a bit.  _

 

That was easier then Tony thought. And actually a somewhat valid concern. Tony slide his phone to Steve so he could see the texts before turning his head back to rest on Thor’s shoulder. 

 

“Just got a text from Stephen. They disabled the portals no problem but weren’t able to track down the portal maker. We don’t know if they’ll get brought back or not, but you’ll be cool to chill here for a week or two right?”

 

Thor seemed unsure, but nodded anyways. “That should be acceptable, my father assumed we would only be gone a day or so but he would be ashamed of us both if we left a battle half done. A week or two is hardly more than a day anyways.” 

 

That got a bright beam from Tony, who was already mentally picking out carpeting and designing hidden weapon stash for Loki’s floor. Steve took one look at his Omega and just softly sighed before he began factor Loki into future battle plans because there was no way in hell that this was going down any other way. He passed the phone back to Tony as it buzzed again. 

 

_ Success. He seemed fine with it, but jumpy when I tried to move a little closer. Heading back to the tower soon once we’re done with clean up.  _

 

Beep

 

_ Have sleeping situation figured out before we’re back. He’s pretending to be fine but the magic use is wiping him out quick. Probably will pull a ‘you after workshop binge’. _

 

That got a soft huff from Tony. Still, there was no time to waste with the two of them wrapping things up. He fired off a quick reply.

 

_ thnks babe. ill clear out the pack room so he can sleep here. he gonna be cool w/goldie locks? _

 

He then shot a look to Natasha who got the message loud and clear. Clint was doing better than they expected with Loki being around but best not to push it today. She got up and steered Clint out of the room with Bruce following close behind. Nat would also pass along the message to Sam and Rodney to steer clear, she was lovely like that. Though Sam would be a good choice for introducing Loki to the pack comfortable. That just left, Bucky, Thor, Steve and Tony in the room. Beep.

 

_ Doesn’t seem like they’re on the best terms. Got a flinch when I brought him up. So complicated from both sides of things. Not sure how he’ll react to Thor not being there though. Seemed comfortable with you when I brought you up in convo. _

 

  1. _ill risk it and get both blonds outta here._



 

All it took from there was one look to Steve and Thor was being herded out of the room. Tony wasn’t even listening hard enough to hear the excuse. He turned his head to glance at Bucky who was tucked back into the shadows of the room still. 

 

“You cool with staying and giving me a hand with this?”

 

Whether that meant just tidying up and preparing the pack room, or what came after was more up to Bucky then anything else. Either way he got a nod and a smile. Bucky had been an omega before, Tony reminded himself, and honestly it was a godsend at times. Speaking of godsends, he sent off a quick text to update Coulson to the situation just in case Natasha was wrapped up with Clint. 

 

It took ten minutes for Tony and Bucky together to have the room straightened up and setup so it could comfortable be used for sleeping. Five for them to get a proper stash of leftovers, and the whole fifteen for them to finish discussing their plan for getting closer to Loki. In the end they settled with setting up The Big Couch so that Tony and Stephen could sit on it with Loki on the other side. Blankets would be conventily already on the couch and food would be ready for whenever the two magic users woke up. If Loki asked to retire somewhere, then Tony could offer him the guest room that just so happened to be right off Tony’s own so they could check on him. 

 

It was foolproof. Two minutes later, the two in question came through on of Stephen’s portals and proved Tony right. His first priority was obviously Stephen, who looked like he was barely standing up. He was scented and sent straight to the couch with Bucky draping a blanket over him. 

 

Loki, Tony had to fight really really had to not do the same too. He was so obviously exhausted, but he still held his posture straight and looked around the room warily. Tony wanted nothing more then to bundle him up in his arms but even Omega-brain knew better then that with how on edge Loki was. 

 

Pack would run. Too scared and hurt right now. Would see sense later. 

 

Loki looked first at Tony, then at Bucky and then cast a glance at Stephen on the couch. Clearly unsure of what he was meant to do. He spoke before Tony could. 

 

“Where did Thor go? Has he been alerted of the schedule change?” 

 

There definitely wasn’t disappointment in his tone, Loki wasn’t missing Thor, but he sure as hell was suspicious. Tony took a step closer to Loki. He was projecting as much calm as he could and despite the initial flinch at the movement, it looked like it was working. Just a moment of calm first before Tony replied. 

 

“He went to help out Steve. Should be back in awhile. We checked the schedule change with him and he didn’t think it’d be an issue. I guess a day or two week isn’t really different for you guys. I can call him back if you want, but why don’t you go sit down for now.”

 

There was still supiousion, but it was clearly overridden by exhaustion. That and instincts Loki didn’t understand or even really know about were starting to kick in. He nodded and made his way to the edge of the couch just where he was meant to. When he sat down, his posture was stiff and clearly he was ready to flee at any moment. Easy enough to fix. Tony grabbed the snacks he had prepared, slipped them onto the table where they were easily in reach of both Stephen and Loki for when they awoke, and then he set himself right in the middle of the two magic users. Before Loki could protest or move, Bucky clicked on the TV. It was a nature program, one of the interesting bugs themed shows. 

 

It was almost hilarious how quickly Loki’s attention was taken by the show. Thor had mentioned often how much his brother loved learning and nobody could resist a British man narrative as leaf cutter ants made their way across the screen. Stephen was already out like a light, and had moved to curl up against Tony’s left side. For Loki, he fought a valiant fight to stay awake and watch the program, yet it was all for naught as he was out before it was halfway over. That had been all that Bucky and Tony had planned for. Well, that and covering him with a blanket. But it seemed Loki’s pack mind had other ideas, not a minute after he had fallen asleep he had started to shift over towards Tony. 

 

Loki took four and three quarters of a minute to fully shift his head into Tony’s lap and it was two minutes after that until Tony couldn’t resist any longer and stroked his hand through that silky black hair. He could almost hear the purr trying to rumble its way out of Loki’s chest. Even if Loki had no idea what was happening, it was clear that his instincts were calling him to them just as much as he was calling to them. Tony mouthed at Bucky since he knew what was going to come next. 

 

‘g-o-t-e-l-l-s-t-e-v-e-t-o-t-e-l-l-t-h-o-r’

 

Bucky nodded, and took off after draping a blanket carefully around Loki’s sleeping form. This was going to be a long conversation to get Thor to understand that Loki wasn’t going back to Asgard in two weeks. Maybe never if Tony could help it. 

 

Tony knew this was just asking for trouble. It was going to be battle after battle after battle, with Odin, with Fury, with the damn press. Looking down at Loki’s sleeping face though, seeing that look of safety and contentment for the very first (but not last) time, Tony knew damn well it was going to be battles he was going to win or die trying. 


End file.
